Points of Contact
From Barbelith
This is the page where we note points of contact between the various issues of Seven Soldiers.
You might also be interested in the Seven Soldiers Timeline, where the issues are put in chronological order.
| Table of contents |
The Plot of Seven Soldiers
There's an ongoing plot tying the series together. It seems to have a magickal significance, relying on Ken Wilber's thoughts about Kaballah and VMemes -- see Seven Soldiers Kabbalah Mapping for more on that. And see also the Seven Soldiers Timeline for a more sweeping look at the order of events throughout the series.
This is an early attempt to summarize the plot:
Cyberballs - SK #1: The Sheeda slaughter the remains of Camelot, with the aid of the time-displaced Neb-u-Loh and some stolen Green Lantern Power Batteries... Justin becomes time-displaced and survives, but not before stealing two sacred treasures and making a nemesis out of Gloriana Tenebrae, Queen of the Sheeda. Lands at the end of the current cycle, before the Sheeda come to harvest our world. JLA #1-3: The Seven Soldiers of the JLA defeat a sortie by the Neh-Buh-Loh and the Sheeda Spineriders. Sheeda established as having mind control. Z #1-#2: Set prior to Z's anointment as a Soldier, since it features Gimmix. She's lost her powers, has dreams of the Sheeda. Meets Misty, who is of possible relation to Klarion's tribe. Misty has a die, it isn't the fabled "God Machine" Die that will turn up later. Some time passes between issues one and two, in the same manner as Shinging Knight. I imagine there's going to be a similar shift between two and three - we know Zatanna is going to be fighting The Sheeda next with the undying don. SSS #0: A group of seven is assembled to save the world. They don't know the true reasons why they've been brought together, and they fail, because one of them doesn't show up (my money is on The Toy). They're dragged into a strange place far from home and cut down. Possible survivors are I, Spyder and The Whip. At the very least, Spyder is turned, most likely through a spine-rider. MG #1: Not much of relevance to the main arc, introduces the new Guardian. K #1: Another Sheeda sighting, Klarion escapes and is drawn into the backwash of the Guardian's first scoop. MG #2: The god Klarion's tribe worships turns out to have been a huge beast, restrained with chains beneath new york city. Incidental tie-in to Klarion, they pass each other like ships in the night. K #2: Klarion possesses the god machine die, displays Sheeda traits and immunity to radiation. The idea of the absent god-monster is reinforced. Klarion makes it to NYC. Which brings us to SK #3. It all fits together neatly and sometimes ingeniously. I loved this issue. Justin's arc is almost at an end, and I get the feeling that he may be coming to an end too. Then again, he may "gather champions" for SSS #1. I get the feeling he'll unite the seven.
Significant Sevens
Of course, numbers are significant -- Sheeda travel in eights, on eight-legged steeds, while groups of six consistently fail when attempting to defend against their invasion. But there might be more to the seven soldiers than that.
For one thing, the seven characters appear to map across the "personalities" of the seven chakras:
Mario -- 1. Root chakra: Materialism, connection to the Earth, survival. I think this one is Frankenstein (or possibly Klarion, because of his Cthonic origins). 2. Sacral Chakra: Sexuality, creativity, self-worth. Definitely the Bulleteer. 3. Solar Plexus Chakra: Ego, impulses. I think this one might be Klarion, especially as it connects to personal development and adventurousness. 4. Heart Chakra: Love, compassion. Jake. 5. Throat Chakra: Communication, Creativity. Zatanna fits really well here. 6. Third Eye Chakra: Perception and Intellect. Based on a note in the Z thread, I think we can put Ystin here. 7. And that leaves Shilo for the Crown Chakra, which brings consciousness of the greater universe...the realm of the gods.
For another thing, the series draws on imagery from fairy tales, especially the mythic sources of the Snow White story... a lost princess, like Misty, who was defended from a wicked queen by seven dwarves.
Adam forgets how to count -- Frankenstein = Sleepy. He sleeps for over a century, only to be awoken and start killing teens with shovels and burning down schools. Guardian = Grumpy. He has to overcome being all surly and feeling useless to feel good about himself. Zatanna = Dopey. She can't even remember how to make her magic work. Then she can. Bulleteer = Sneezy. Her origin begins with a "sickness", but instead of a cold, she "catches" Space Age Super Cyber Skin off her sleazo husband. Klarion = Happy. Ignorance is bliss, but that's not enough for young Klarion, who seeks out what lies beyond his crappy subterannean home. Shining Knight = Bashful. Justin is shy about letting anyone know that "he" is really a she. Mr Miracle = Doc. Ummm. Let me think. Like a surgeon, his skill and ability has brought him a lot of wealth and stuff, but he seeks a greater challenge.
There's also the seven members of the Newsboy Army and the Seven Unknown Men, who may or may not have specific places on these maps -- and the Seven Treasures of Camelot, the seven continents of Century Hollow, the seven Guardian employees who "interview" Jake Jordan, and probably a few more.
A further investigation of Significant Sevens reveal the sometime presence of an eighth:
- The JLA Big Seven: Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, ...plus the Squire
- The Seven Unknown Men, ...plus Zor
- The last seven Knights of the Broken Table: Lancelot, Peredur, Bors, Galahad, Gawain, Caradoc, Arthur, ...plus Ystin
- The seven from The Last Stand of Don Vincenzo: The Undying Don, Strato the air elemental, Crazyface, and the Four Tops(assassins), ...plus Vanguard
- The original Newsboy Army: Captain 7, Chop Suzi, Ali Kazoom, Kid Scarface, Lil Hollywood, Baby Brains, Millions the dog, ...plus El Mar
- The seven Deviants: Billy Beezer, Moose analog, Reggie analog, Betty analog, Veronica analog, and Nob'dy, ...plus Klarion
- The seven headcases from Zatanna's group session, ...plus Misty
Echoes and Reflections
Certain motifs are repeated in different stories:
A particular red and gold color combination is shared from book to book:
A beautiful tunnel of ghosts -- In Shining Knight 1, Gloriana Tenebrae declares that 'the colours of this age are red and bleeding gold'; in SK 3, Ne-Bu-Loh recovers the cauldron from Don Vincenzo's mansion on the corner of Orange Drive and Sunset Boulevard. In KtWB 3, Goldenboy reveals that Team Red exist to mine "the gold in the red place."
I'd imagine this is just lumping in some seasonal change metaphoria; Autumnal imagery. Where do Sheeda come from? Summer's End.
Kid gangs seem to appear frequently -- Leviathan (the subway dwellers) and the Deviants (Klarion), the Newsboy Army (Manhattan Guardian).
Intelligent pets occur with alarming frequency: Teekl the cat, Vanguard the magic horse, Shiloh Norman's Motherboxx.
Masquerade -- Possession is a frequent theme, given that the Sheeda's most horrific troops are their Spine-riders. But the heroes are very frequently in disguise themselves: Misty the runaway Sheeda, Ystin the she-knight, Jake Jordan's struggle with his identity as a cop, Ed Stargard's bizarre revelation, Klarion's whole existence....
At Home in an Alien World -- In terms of story structure, each of the seven soldiers is taken out of their everyday experiences and thrust into an alien world where the rules to which they are accustomed no longer apply. However, because each soldier comes from a different background and a different genre, what one considers to be an alien world may be home to another.
- Alix is thrust into the bizarre world of the super-hero celebrity circuit, where wanna-bes compete for attention and fame while hiding doubts about the meaninglessness of their lives. This is the world that Shilo Norman calls home.
- Mister Miracle starts out at the heart of the super-celebrity community in his first issue and ends up immersed in "higher worlds of manichean purity locked in a grim, eternal struggle." That sounds like a place where the Shining Knight would feel right at home.
- Ystin hails from Camelot, where "there is not one knight... whose heart is less than pure." In Avalon, "optimal humans" fight a grim, eternal struggle against the depraved Sheeda. And where does Ystin end up? In a modern urban landscape filled with depression and plagued by guilt where unthinking cops cause troubles for innocent kids. This is Jake Jordan's home turf.
- The urban landscape and the guilt that Ystin finds so alien are Jake Jordan's constant companions in his first issue. By the end of his story, though, Jake's been thrust into a bigger, wider, weirder world and he's ready to plunge into a one-man showdown with an army of killer fairies, ...which is exactly where we were introduced to Frankenstein back in 1870.
I don't know if I can fit Klarion and Zatanna into the same tidy chain, but...
- Klarion is filled with wonder as he explores the glorious realm of "Blue Rafters," which is really Manhattan, boring-old-home to Guardian, Bulleteer, Mister Miracle, and the Whip.
- At the end of her journey, Zatanna reaches out and touches a world she can barely comprehend: the world beyond the printed page, which is home to the readers of the comic.
Seen through a different set of eyes, a fantastic world can seem mundane or the ordinary can seem bizarre and alien. Each character is thrust into somebody else's genre and then forced to grow because of it.
Tail-coated Top-Hatters -- Many characters throughout Seven Soldiers wear Top Hats.
- Zatanna wears a top hat.
- Zatara wears a top hat.
- Zor wears a top hat.
- Ali-Ka-Zoom wears a top hat.
There is, in fact, one top hat that gets passed from person to person through the course of the narrative.
- In Guardian 4, fouteen-year old Ali-Ka-Zoom enters the shack of Cyrus Gold wearing a top hat.
- The Terrible Time Tailor steals Ali's top hat.
- The Terrible Time Tailor grows a beard and starts calling himself Zor.
- Zor appears in the magic shop of Cassandra Craft, posing as the ghost of Zatara, and leaves behind his top hat.
- Zatanna stops by the shop looking for magical weapons and picks up the top hat, which she keeps. (Zatanna 2)
- In Zatanna 4, Zatanna enters the shack of Cyrus Gold wearing a top hat.
- While inside she takes her hat off, and when she steps outside to bid Misty fairwell, she leaves it inside.
- Zor appears inside the shack in a flash of lightning, and when he exits the house he is wearing the top hat.
- After his duel with Zatanna, when Zor is peeled off the surface of space-time by the Seven Unknown Men, he is wearing his top hat.
- In Seven Soldiers 1, one of the Seven Unknown Men steals the hat back from Zor and wears it as he sails off into Slaughter Swamp at the end of the story.
In addition to the communal top hat there are several other top hats that appear in the story.
- As an adult, Ali-Ka-Zoom wears a second top hat which he must have acquired to replace the one he lost as a child. This hat can be distiguished because it has a horse-feather tucked into the band. The feather is presumably one of the feathers of Vanguard that Ali coughed up using sleight of hand in Shining Knight 2.
- Zatara and Zatanna both wear top hats during flashbacks in Zatanna 1, Zatara on the set of a TV show, and Zatanna as she arrives at the home of Baron Winter.
- Zatanna also wears a top hat in Seven Soldiers 1, which must be a replacement for the one she lost in her duel with Zor.
There is something else strange about Top Hats in the story. Though Zatanna, Zor, Ali-Ka-Zoom, and Zatara all wear top hats and all appear together at some point during the story...
No two top hats ever appear on panel in the same scene at the same time.
- In Zatanna 2, Zatanna wears her top hat while fighting The Tempter. In the next scene, Zatanna and Misty are riding in her car on Sunset Boulevard. Though Zatanna is wear the same costume from the previous scene, she has taken off her top hat, presumably because of the limited headroom in her small hatch-back. Ali-Ka-Zoom appears and Zatanna remains hatless throughout the entire time he is present.
- As previously mentioned, the same thing happens in Zatanna 4 with Zor, Zatanna takes off her top hat just before Zor shows up wearing the same exact top hat.
- At the end of Zatanna 4, Zor and his top hat are captured by the Seven Unknown Men. Zatara appears out of the shadows wearing a top hat identical to Zatanna's and Zor's. In the very next panel, we see that Zor has lost his top hat, even though he was seen wearing it just before Zatara appeared.
- In Seven Soldiers 1, Zatanna gets zapped by Misty and falls over, losing her top hat, just moments before the top-hat-wearing Ali-Ka-Zoom shows up to aid her.
Inspiration for the series
Morrison, from a Silver Bullet interview (http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/features/112602239631900.htm), 6 Sep 05: Some have seen the book as an ode to the King, Jack Kirby, and in so many heartfelt ways it is, but SEVEN SOLDIERS is also my personal hymn to the poetic imagination of Len Wein, whose 70s work turned me into a teenage fanboy. A great deal of SEVEN SOLDIERS – as with so much of the work I’ve done for DC - relates directly to, and expands upon, continuity established by Len. I owe an immense imaginative debt to Wein, who is humble, bemused and patient every time I collar him to tell how much his work meant to me. The way a hero ought to be.
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